Cody Casey
Audacity is a free digital audio workstation (DAW) that offers a range of editing tools for beginners and professionals alike. While Audacity does not support external plug-ins or digital instruments, it does provide a simple and intuitive interface for users to record and edit audio. One common audio editing task is centering panned vocals, which can be achieved by splitting a stereo song to mono and inverting the phase to isolate and remove the center-panned vocals. Additionally, Audacity offers vocal removal settings that allow users to adjust the strength and frequency range of vocal reduction, making it a useful tool for content creators, musicians, and audio editors.
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What You'll Learn
Using Audacity's Vocal Reduction and Isolation tools
Audacity's Vocal Reduction and Isolation tools can be used to remove or isolate vocals from a song. This is an experimental feature that is not part of the normal Audacity installation. To use it, you first need to download the current alpha with AI models from https://interactiveaudiolab.github.io/project/audacity. Once installed and Audacity is restarted, you can find it in Effect -> OpenVINO AI Effects -> OpenVINO Music Separation.
The Vocal Reduction and Isolation feature attempts to remove or isolate center-panned audio from a stereo track. Vocals are sometimes recorded in this way. The simplest and quickest removal method subtracts one channel from the other, but the result will be a dual mono track.
If the audio is center-panned, you can use the "Remove Vocals: to mono" setting to remove the vocal range defined by the Low Cut and High Cut sliders and return it as a stereo track. Alternatively, you can use the "Isolate Vocals" setting to extract the slider-defined vocal range and return it as a dual mono track.
Another method to isolate center-panned vocals is to split a stereo song into mono and invert the phase. This involves flipping the sign on one channel and mixing them: Left + (- Right) or simply: L - R. This isolates the side channel and removes what is equal in both channels, leaving the differences.
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Splitting a stereo song to mono
To centre panned vocals in Audacity, you can start by splitting a stereo song into mono. This process will convert stereo audio into mono, allowing both channels to be merged and heard as one. Here's how you can do it:
Firstly, open your stereo audio file in Audacity. Navigate to the Track Dropdown Menu and select "Split Stereo to Mono". This action will create two new mono tracks, each set to play equally in both the left and right channels of your listening equipment.
Now, you can adjust the pan controls for each track. Move the pan control of the upper track to 70% left, and the lower track to 70% right. You can fine-tune these settings later to achieve the desired effect.
Next, select both tracks by clicking on the info area of the Track Control Panel for each track. Hold down the Shift key while clicking to select multiple tracks simultaneously.
Once the tracks are selected, choose "Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render" from the menu. This action will mix and render the two tracks into a single stereo track, combining the audio data and waveform to match the audible pan settings you adjusted earlier.
After rendering, you can listen to the result and make any necessary adjustments to the pan controls to fine-tune your output. If you are satisfied with the result, your centred panned vocals should now be isolated and centred in your Audacity project.
Remember that splitting stereo into mono can be beneficial, especially if your playback device cannot handle stereo audio. By converting to mono, you ensure that the audio can be heard as intended on any device.
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Inverting the phase to remove vocals
Inverting the phase is a method used to remove vocals from a track. This method involves splitting a stereo song into mono and inverting the phase to remove the centre-panned audio, which is usually the vocals. This process flips the audio samples upside down, reversing their polarity. The positive samples above the horizontal zero line are moved below the line, becoming negative, and the negative samples are made positive.
However, simply inverting the phase may not always be sufficient to remove the vocals completely. In some cases, the vocals may still be audible at a lower volume. To address this, additional steps can be taken, such as duplicating the inverted track and increasing its volume. While this may reduce the volume of the vocals, it can also make the song louder overall.
Another approach is to utilise noise removal techniques and filtering. This includes using "Remove Noise" and applying low and high pass filters to tweak the EQ. Additionally, AI services like Lalal.ai can be explored for more effective vocal removal.
It is worth noting that the success of vocal removal depends on how the tracks are panned in the original mix. Phase cancellation, in general, can be challenging to achieve, and professional engineers with high-quality audio equipment may be better equipped to handle such tasks.
Furthermore, when inverting the phase, it is important to understand the underlying audio principles. When inverting one channel, such as the left or right channel, and mixing them together (Left + (- Right) or L - R), you are essentially isolating the side channel. What was equal in both channels, such as the vocals, is now removed, while what is different, like the background instruments, remains.
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Adjusting the strength, low cut, and high cut for vocals
When adjusting the strength, low cut, and high cut for vocals in Audacity, there are several effects and tools you can use to enhance vocal clarity and warmth. Firstly, the Vocal Reduction and Isolation feature in Audacity allows you to remove, reduce, or isolate vocals from a track. The "Strength" slider in this feature modifies the shape of the center, with higher values increasing the degree of reduction or isolation. A value of 1.0 produces a notch with a V shape, while a value greater than 1.0 produces a peak with an A shape, which can help attenuate most of the side energy but may also produce musical noise. The default value of 120 Hz is suitable for most lead vocals and low male voices, while higher values can be used for female and children's voices.
The "Low Cut" and "High Cut" sliders in the Vocal Reduction and Isolation feature are used to define the vocal range to be removed or isolated. If you select "Remove Vocals: to mono:", the audio is converted to a dual-channel mono track, removing the vocal range defined by these sliders. Choosing "Remove Vocals" without the "to mono" option removes the vocal range defined by the sliders and returns the audio as a stereo track.
Additionally, the Equalizer (EQ) tool in Audacity allows you to adjust the balance between frequency components, enhancing vocal clarity and reducing unwanted noise. To improve voice clarity, boost frequencies around 2-5 kHz and cut low frequencies below 100 Hz to reduce rumble and muddiness. You can also apply a High Pass Filter to remove unnecessary low frequencies.
For a more natural sound, consider adding a touch of reverb. Compression can be used to balance volume levels and bring out quieter parts of the speech. Finally, noise reduction techniques can be employed to eliminate background noise and improve overall vocal clarity.
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Boosting the frequencies of the mid/centre material
To centre panned vocals in Audacity, one of the steps is to boost the frequencies of the mid/centre material. This can be done by splitting the stereo song to mono and inverting the phase to remove the centre-panned audio, usually the vocals.
To boost the frequencies of the mid/centre material, you can use the Noise Remover tool in Audacity. First, select the entire section of the waveform from which you want to reduce noise. Then, set the Noise Reduction parameters by adjusting the sliders and listening as you go. This will allow you to remove any unwanted background noise and boost the frequencies of the mid/centre material.
Another way to boost the frequencies is by using the Spectral Selection tool in Audacity. You can define the bandwidth, or range of frequencies, to be acted on by dragging vertically or horizontally. The Spectral Selection tool allows you to modify the tone quality by boosting or reducing the amplitude of the selected frequency band using the Gain control.
Additionally, you can boost the mid/centre frequencies by adjusting the bass and treble functions in Audacity. By applying a boost to the bass or treble, you can increase the overall level, while reducing the bass or treble may make the final level too quiet. If you increase both the treble and bass frequencies and lower the overall volume, there will be a reduction in the middle frequencies. Conversely, reducing both the bass and treble and increasing the volume will result in a boost to the middle frequencies.
It is important to use caution when adjusting these settings, as altering the frequency balance can affect the final audio level.
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